Guest Blog Post - Shabby Chic Storage

Who glams up in a room like this? Shabby Chic style make-up storage ideas

Hi girls! (and boys!?)

I’ve had a love for shabby chic for around 2 years now. Living at home with my mum in a tiny bedroom, the closest thing I got to exploring the French elegant style boudoir was by looking at photos on websites and dreaming, but I knew one day I would definitely turn those dreams into a reality.

Fast forward 2 years and I find myself moving into my own house with my boyfriend (July of this year). I definitely made sure it had 3 bedrooms; one for us, one for him and his toys (i.e. PS3!) and one for me and my shabby chic-ness!

On the run up to moving house, I thought about ways of storing make-up and hair products, and began collecting little things on a weekly basis. There are various types of shabby chic styles.. I decided to go for white furniture with a hint of pastel colours to add a pop of colour to the room but also keeping within the theme.

So, without further ado, here is my own little parlour, full of everything a woman would need in her life!

The make-up brush holder that you can see on the left of my dressing table is actually a metal cutlery caddy that I bought from Wilkinsons for a mere £2. I was lucky enough for my mum to give me the dressing table, however they can still be found on ebay here (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/French-Shabby-Chic-Dressing-Table-Swing-Mirror-NEW-/180730409505?pt=UK_Bedroom_Furniture&hash=item2a145f3221).

What sits on my chest of drawers?

 

I thought this was a perfect way to store nail varnishes… in a glass fish bowl type vase! They are inexpensive to buy (a mere £2), can store lots of varnishes (I have 20+ in here) and they are quite funky to look at too, don't you think?!

I found this little beauty in TKMaxx. Ok it’s not exactly shabby chic, but the pastel blue matched my room. It’s a metal mesh type drawer set that was found in the stationery section. It cost me £4.99 and is now home to most of my hair accessories – hair grips, hair bobbles, headbands etc. I’m not a massive hair person so they all fit in here nicely. For those that were wondering, on top is a giant rose scented candle that was purchased from Matalan a few months ago for £6.

This sits by the side of my chest of drawers and holds a mixture of products. As you've probably guessed it's actually a metal cakestand, but again, because of its style, I was drawn to it. I found this in Homebase for around £6.

This drawer tower matches the dressing table. Unfortunately I can’t find it on eBay right now, but this is what I store all my make-up in, minus palettes. On top I have a shabby chic floral tray which holds my perfumes, and the taller object behind that is a slim vase that holds all my chunky bangles. I find that wide costume bangles consume a lot of space so stacking them is perfect.

The majority of you will recognise the smaller boxes, yep, that’s right, good ol’ Glossy Box! I do have a lot more of these boxes but they are home to other things in cupboards all around my house! I think they are a great idea to keep to store things in, and they match with my room which is a bonus! I keep things such as camera leads/chargers and sample/travel beauty products in them.

This is my jewellery corner. I have stacks of costume jewellery but keep my most used items on these. The earrings are pierced through a canvass board. I got the idea from Youtube, however I think I am changing this soon because once you’ve pierced the earring through, getting them back in the same hole and making them stay there is another matter! Either way, a canvass can be picked up from most stationery stores for a few quid. My necklace holder I think is super cute. I bought it from BHS for £4, reduced from £12, I love a bargain! It is metal so strong enough to hold a fair few of my heavy duty necklaces ;-)

Below my jewellery stands this 4 tower wicker drawer set. This was actually purchased from Argos in the bathroom section to, yeah, you’ve guessed it, be used in our bathroom! However we had more storage than we thought, so it made itself at home in my room instead. This holds a lot of hair products and deodorants. Although the size of the drawers are not great, so only smaller products can be kept in these.

So, that is my little make-up room that I get ready in every morning!

It’s not exactly how I’d like it (I did want the carpet ripping up and the floorboards painting white, and the walls to be painted white, but I got a bit lazy/impatient!).

Have you got any unusual make-up or jewellery storage tips?

I just want to thank MissBudgetBeauty for letting me take over her blog for a day, and I wish her all the best with her birth!

Please come and check out my blog, I do reviews, OOTD’s, recent buys, competitions and random life updates!

http://aworldfullofprettiness.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading,

Kate x

About Todays Guest Blogger

I started doing YT video's last year, and absolutely loved it however I stopped filming around a month ago for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I didn't have a good quality camera and recording equipment, and because I've recently moved into my own house and have far less time on my hands now. I've known about blogger for some time now, but have only being blogging myself for a couple of months. I can honestly say I'm (sadly) addicted. I check it at every spare opportunity, even at work (the amount of time's I've had to quickly click off because my boss has walked in I've lost count!). I get so much inspiration from reading blogs (not all good inspiration, may I add, the amount of times I've gone shopping shortly after reading someones review on something... so easily influenced! haha). Its a lot less time consuming than YT and to me its like an online photographic diary. I know its something I'll stick with for years to come. I think it's a great little concept, knowing that you are making little recordings of your life, both beauty wise and personal life, and having these to look back on in years to come. I know this blog will be with me for a long time and follow me through many stages in my life :-)

(http://aworldfullofprettiness.blogspot.com)

Guest Blog Post - My Mother & Her Clothes

My mother and her clothes

What my mother wears is fast becoming the bane of my life. Every morning before I go to school I have to check she is wearing an ‘age appropriate’ outfit for the day. When we are out shopping I constantly have to remind her how old she is and that lycra is NOT appropriate. Now, I am all for people having individual styles, but honestly mum, purple cotton trousers with a green trim is taking it a bit far. I think she sometimes forgets she is representing me as well as herself and people will judge me for what she wears. If she comes to collect me from somewhere and is wearing something horrible then I have to run to the car before she gets out and embarrasses me.

One of my mums greatest loves is her work shoes. Why on earth she felt the need to buy the clumpy, black horrible shoes for work is beyond me. Not only that, she then wears theses shoes when she is not at work! She wears them with jeans, skirts and the worst of all, tracksuit bottoms. She looks like she has just got out of bed and pulled random items out of her very own dressing-up box.

Another one of her treasured items is her flannel shorts. Why, why, why?! This material should have never left the factories never mind found it’s way into shops. My mum’s pair are grey and she wears them every single year on holiday, I am sick of seeing them. If I say to her “Why don’t you buy yourself a nice new pair of shorts this year?” She says “There is nothing wrong with these!” Mother, I can think of hundreds of things wrong with them.

My mother’s accessory of choice is her woolly hat. She looks ridiculous in it and I have tried several times to ‘dispose of it’, but sadly our dog keeps digging it up. This hat is black and really bulky, it is possibly one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. Not only that but hats really don’t suit my mum so she looks a million times worse in it. Her excuse is “It’s only for walking the dog in” Yes mother, but just because you are walking the dog it doesn’t make you invisible to everyone else, they can still see the monstrosity you have on your head, I’m surprised the dog isn’t embarrassed.

I think the reason my mum has so many vile clothes is because she shops in places that I would never dream of going in. The kind of shops that are lavender scented and have a ‘no skirts above the knee’ policy. It seems that if you buy a top from one of these shops you have to buy the matching trousers, handbag, fascinator, necklace and broach, all in the same colour – lovely. All her friends shop their too, I bet between them they own the the whole stock, their most used phrase is “Oh! I have that top too!”.

When I have children I am defiantly not going to embarrass them as my mother does to me. Then again, I went shopping today and I saw a lovely beige suit.

 

About Todays Guest Blogger

My name is Sarah and I am a teenager living in England with a dysfunctional family and an ill- disciplined dog. I like dancing and shopping, much to my dads despair. My blog is basically an outpouring of all the frustrations that teenagers have. It is quite new and it would be really nice if you could give me some feedback. Hope you enjoy.

http://saharasteenagedaze.blogspot.com/

Guest Blog Post - Blue Ombre Nails

I don't know about any one else but i'm always switching up my nail polish. No matter how lovely the colour looks or how long i've spent making them look nice, within a few days i'm bored and want something new. I've always liked nail art but spending hours on intricate details to remove it all a few days later seems silly!

This design is quick, easy and cheap(and did i mention really pretty too?!)

To get Gradient nails(or ombre as some might call it!), where the polish goes from light(less opaque) to dark(highly opaque) or dark to light(whichever you fancy) all you need is one nail polish. I've seen this done(and attempted it very badly) with multiple polishes but that's where it starts getting a bit tricky!

When doing this with a single polish it's best to use one that is thin and that isn't very opaque. This allows us to create thin layers that we can gradually build up.

I chose Barry M's Silver Sea. It's a lovely silver ocean blue with a bit of glitter that really adds another dimension to the gradient. It's perfect for the cold Winter season that's coming up. It's also a complete steal at only £2.99.

Seche Vite fast dry top coat, Barry M Silver Sea, Leighton Denny Sex Kitten.

The first step is to apply a very thin coat of polish onto bare nails. It doesn't matter how thin it is as we're going to build it up. It also doesn't matter how messy the layers are as this won't be noticeable once we've finished all the layers.

Bare in mind that my thumb and ring finger are already painted.

When this layer is nearly dry start slightly higher up the nail and apply another coat, still quite thin. 

Repeat step two higher up the nail again, making the coat slightly thicker

Apply another layer focusing on the top half of the nail.

Finally apply the last layer focusing right at the tip of the nail.

The tip should now be opaque and the colour should be gradually getting darker as it goes up the nail.

Once all the layers are applied, it's important to let them dry before finally applying a top coat(I used Seche Vites fast dry top coat). If they're not dry when you brush on the top coat it can smudge the polish and ruin the gradient effect.

It's such a quick and easy way to create such a lovely effect. You can also do this technique over a base colour like i've done below on my thumb nail for a more subtle effect. Firstly apply the base colour, mine is Sex Kitten by Leighton Denny(From October's Glossybox!) and then repeat the above steps on top of it when it's dried.

Zoe, xo

About Todays Guest Blogger...

My name's Zoe and my Blog is zozeze.blogspot.com

I'm a 17 year old who makes too many impulse buys and spends far too much money on superficial things.

I'm very new to blogging but i'm already obsessed! My blog focuses on make up, current trends and shopping but occasionally something about fashion and style might pop up!